Coptic language
The Coptic language is the last descendant of the Egyptian language, still used in the liturgy of the Coptic Church.
Overview
Coptic refers to the last stage of the Egyptian language which was written with the Coptic alphabet. It is based on the Greek alphabet, but contains some extra letters for sounds used in Coptic but not in Greek. The language survived the Arab conquest of Egypt in the 7th century but gradually lost ground against Arabic which had become the official language for state affairs in the early 8th century. It persisted as a spoken and liturgical language of Christian Egyptians (Copts) until the thirteenth century. From then on it was steadily pushed back into Upper Egypt, and finally became extinct in the 17th century, though it is is possible that the Coptic language survived in isolated pockets till the beginning of the 19th century. Today, the Copts, who are Arab speaking, use Coptic in the liturgy of the Coptic Church.
The language consisted of five dialects
- Sahidic
- Bohairic
- Akhmimic
- Lycopolitan (Subakhmimic)
- Fayyumic
the only surviving one being Bohairic which replaced Sahidic as the official dialect of the Church in the 11th century.
External links and references
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- J.E. Quibell, When did Coptic become extinct? in: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 39 (1901), p. 87.
